First round of planting

My second set of plants have sprouted and are doing well.  My pepper plants have continued to grow slowly.  The tomato plants have been thriving and growing solid.   Random seedlings from each variety have wimped out and bent over.  Unfortunately, the lettuce sprouts are officially dead.  RIP.  I may try again later.

Although the MG training session suggested not moving plants outside until May, I am finding that some plants are in desperate need of being staked.  I haven't figured out a good way to get them climbing that can be continued when the seedlings are transplanted outside. My pea plants were doubled over in their plastic cells and the cucumber sprouts in both soil blocks and plastic cells are beginning to droop right as they sprout their first true leaves.

While I'm risking death, if I don't plant them now, all the pea and cucumber seedlings are guaranteed to die.  I wonder how people are able to keep such plants indoors for 6-8 weeks.  I suspect my kitchen, even with grow lights, just isn't bright enough. 

I brought my goodies from my trip to Home Depot to the balcony and surveyed the results. I have everything I need for now, at least to get some planting started.  

I used some left over gravel to line the bottom of the planters and started shoveling the Miracle Grow container soil.  Having worked briefly with this soil, I would not recommend it.  It has too many sticks, rocks and other tidbits.  I understand I bought "organic" potting soil, but organic sticks don't help little vegetable plants grow.

I popped the pea plants out of their plastic cells and arranged 5 of them in a circle around a standing bamboo stake.  I patted the soil down around them and then went back inside.  Who needs $4 garden ties when you have neon yellow yarn left over from a failed crochet project?  I tied a knot around the plant stem and a knot around the bamboo stake.  I then dropped a soda bottle cloch down the stake and around the pea plants.

Mental Note: Scissors and box cutters are not sharp enough to cut through even thin bamboo.


I then took the four best looking cucumber plants that had been growing in the soil blocks.  1 plant had failed to sprout and 1 had already fallen over. I dropped the plants into the dirt and covered with the second soda bottle.  The third seedling group was from the plastic cell grown cucumbers.  1 plant snapped when I tried to get it out of the plastic cell.  I was left with 5 good plants, 4 of which I planted and covered.  I need to plant 3 more pea plants, but I ran out of soda bottles.  With the weather being rather dismal and gray (in the 50's and cloudy all weekend), placing them outside with no cover is too risky. 

Then again, Monday is supposed to hit 86 degrees.  And I thought New England had wacky weather patterns! 

Soil Blocks vs Plastic Cells

Seedlings:
1. Plastic cell plants sprouted first in all cases, with the head start being anywhere between 2-5 days.  Slow sprouting plants had a larger difference and the time to sprout was more noticeable.
2. Soil blocked plants are less likely to be knocked down by watering and seem to generally stand on their own better.  It's also easier to give them extra room if they get leggy.
3. Soil blocked plants require ALOT more water than plastic cell seedlings.  I can't tell if it's my apartment or the blocks, but having so many sides exposed to air dries out the blocks much faster than cells.  I've found myself watering daily.

Planting:
4. Planting soil blocked seedlings is a snap: dig hole, drop in the block, cover.  Removing plastic cell seedlings can be risky: I lost one pea and one cucumber plant today.